Sixteen coffins have been taken to an Indonesian prison island where drug traffickers on death row are expected to be executed this week, according to media reports yesterday.
Prosecutors and families of the convicts visited the Nusa Kambangan prison complex off the coast of central Java, where 14 convicts faced firing squads last year, a sign that the executions could be carried out as early as Friday, Detik.com news website reported.
A funeral official for a local church told Detik.com that police had transported 16 coffins to the execution site.
“I have been asked to bathe the bodies of Christian (convicts),” Suhendro Putro was quoted as saying. “Each body will be bathed by two people.”
The attorney general’s office has not announced a date for the executions or how many will be executed, saying only that “preparations are under way”.
However, yesterday Indonesian authorities gave 72 hours’ notice that they will execute the drug convicts, a diplomat said, despite protests from governments and rights groups.
Syed Zahid Raza, the deputy Pakistani ambassador in Jakarta, told AFP that the convicts, who include a Pakistani, could face the firing squad around midnight on Friday after yesterday’s meeting between Indonesian officials and diplomats to signal the start of the countdown.
Nationals from Pakistan, India, Nigeria and Zimbabwe are expected to be executed alongside Indonesians.
Officials say no Europeans or Australians will be included in the third round of executions under President Joko Widodo.
Indonesia sparked international outrage with its last batch of executions in April 2015 when it put to death seven foreigners, including two Australians.
But Widodo has insisted Jakarta is fighting a war against drugs and traffickers must be harshly punished.
Authorities have been stepping up preparations in recent days, with several death row drug convicts transferred to Nusakambangan prison island – where executions take place – and security strengthened in the area.
Fourteen prisoners have been placed in isolation cells on the island this week, state-run Antara news agency reported, a step normally taken ahead of executions.
Raza said Indonesian officials had given the notice period at a meeting in Cilacap, the town closest to the prison island, which included diplomats from several countries and lawyers.
It is a legal requirement in Indonesia to give a minimum notice period of 72 hours before executions, and authorities typically put people to death just after midnight.
The attorney general’s office, which oversees executions, would not confirm any details.
Pakistan has raised concerns about the looming execution of its national, Zulfiqar Ali, saying he did not receive a fair trial.
Rights groups have claimed Ali, sentenced to death in 2005 for heroin possession, was beaten into confessing.
There have also been concerns over the case of a female Indonesian drug convict, Merri Utami, who is among the group.
Rights group the National Commission on Violence Against Women say the former domestic worker was tricked into trafficking heroin.
About 121 people are currently on death row in Indonesia, including 35 foreigners, mainly convicted of drug-related crimes, according to the justice ministry.
Family of death row prisoners ride a ferry boat to the prison island of Nusa Kambangan for a visit, in Cilacap, Central Java.
